Marking Time
by Dengirl
Summary: One Shot  Pairing: Ten/Donna  Prompt: Time is passing me by.


**Marking Time**

Donna sighed as she put the bags of shopping on the floor. If it wasn't for her, Time Boy would be even skinnier than he was now.

She'd noticed his mood was decidedly sombre the last few days and decided to buy him some extra special treats to try and cheer him up.

She'd tried to find out why he was so down but he remained tight-lipped and had either busied himself under the console and had eventually snapped at her and disappeared into the depths of the TARDIS.

She was beginning to worry as he hadn't eaten or drank anything...was he ill?

That panicked her as she wasn't a doctor, not like Martha had been.

She'd even, god forbid, tried to ask the TARDIS what was wrong, but either the TARDIS wasn't saying or she couldn't understand the answer.

So she decided to do it Donna Noble style.

She busied herself in the kitchen, mixing and measuring and soon the kitchen was filled with smell of bananas and chocolate.

If this didn't tempt skinny-boy to at least talk, then nothing would.

The Doctor had crawled right into the heating ducts of the TARDIS and was now fiddling with a circuit that really didn't need fixing.

But he needed something to take his mind off the dark thoughts that were welling in his mind.

He let out a surprised 'oww' when the circuit sparked and he looked up at the top of the duct.

"There was no need for that!" he exclaimed.

'Yes there was. You should tell her.'

He shook his head. "No, she wouldn't understand."

'How would you know, have you tried?'

"How could she understand, she's only..."

'Human...not enough intelligence to understand?'

"No, that's not it...she's brilliant. It's just...I can't"

'So, you're going to mope and snap at her until you drive her away?'

"I'm not..."

'Miserable, grumpy, rude?'

The Doctor sighed, as usual the TARDIS was right...he should talk to Donna.

He clambered out of the duct and the smell of banana cake and chocolate muffins wafted over him and his stomach reminded he hadn't eaten.

Donna looked from her work as she heard footsteps and the scrape of a chair being pulled back.

She turned and saw her Spaceman sitting at the table, still looking miserable and...dusty.

"Donna, I...," he began but was cut off by Donna.

"If you don't want to talk it's okay."

The Doctor shifted in his chair and cleared his throat. "No, I want to...want to explain why I've been a bit off."

"A bit," Donna said. "You nearly bit my head off this morning and I've seen better behaved two year olds."

She placed a pot of tea on the table and two mugs, followed by still warm banana bread and butter in a dish. She cut him a large slice and loaded it with enough butter to kill a rhino and poured him a mug of tea and loaded it with sugar.

"So, explain?" she said.

The Doctor took a bite of the bread and let the flavours and the warmth flood through him before speaking.

"Time Donna, its passing me by."

Donna said nothing, just raised an eyebrow.

"When my people were still around, we marked time by celebrating it with processions and ceremonies."

"You mean like a carnival?"

"If you like...every hundred years, but now there's no-one to celebrate, mark the passing of time," he sighed.

"So you feel like time is passing you by, because you can't mark it anymore?" Donna said quietly.

"Yeah," the Doctor replied and Donna felt her heart falter at the desolate tone in his voice.

She couldn't bring his people back; but there was something else she could do.

As she was washing up she felt a tickle at the back of her mind. The TARDIS had read her thoughts and was agreeing with her.

She smiled. "Thank you."

The Doctor was surprised when the TARDIS landed; he hadn't set any co-ordinates. What was she doing?

He entered the console room and found Donna dressed in an outfit that could only be described as colourful.

She grabbed his hand and opened the door.

Music assailed his ears.

"Donna...where?" he said, uncertain as to what was going on.

Donna pulled him along until they found themselves sitting with hundreds of other people.

"It's Rio, carnival time, it's a time of celebration. They do it every year, it's our way of marking time."

She stopped when she saw tears forming in the Time Lords eyes.

"Oh, Spaceman, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad. If you like, we can go?"

The Doctor looked at her smiled.

"No, I'm not sad...I'm very happy. Donna?"

"Yes Spaceman," she said.

"Can we come back next year...mark the time?" he asked and held out his hand.

"Yeah," she replied and took the offered hand.

They watched the rest of the parade in silence, marking the time in a new celebration.


End file.
